Texas

William Friedkin’s accomplished films gleefully stomp on and dance around the limits of representation. His single-minded, questionably scrupled, mysoginist, white male crusaders in “The French Connection” and “To Live and Die in L.A.” represent some of the quintessential stuff of contemporary action heroes. “Cruising” still inspires its lion’s share of debate on whether the film should be regarded as homophobic fear mongering or as a once prophetic glimpse into the potential psychological consequences of violence against the male gay community.